tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post1620923400994982810..comments2024-03-26T11:07:03.496-04:00Comments on Ed Notes Online: Deconstructing the System, School by Schooled notes onlinehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-88685085424753760312007-02-11T07:32:00.000-05:002007-02-11T07:32:00.000-05:00Thanks again, Norm, for grasping out sentiments he...Thanks again, Norm, for grasping out sentiments here at our High School. Ditto everything you said. Incidentally, we finally managed our first - and only fire drill in a long - when all six school principals agreed to hold one in late December. But first, the new schools conspired to do away with mandatory suspensions for knives and box cutters and got rid of our old detention rules for latecomers - causing a disastrous lateness problem that still plagues [our school]. Snooty students from the other schools arrogantly claim [our] faculty has no juristiction over them when they're stopped in our space or do wrong. Our students are made to understand they're not wanted in their space.<BR/> [Our school] continues to lose space - and morale as we're packed into a smaller area. Some of the new schools have dropped the titles of Mr. and Miss from teacher names and students adress them by their first names. But I suppose this practice is the least of our gripes.<BR/><BR/>It all inspired the attached poem.<BR/><BR/>The Bloomberg – Klein School for Principals without Principles <BR/><BR/> (Or, The Fire Next Time)<BR/><BR/> By Anonymous<BR/><BR/><BR/>“To be a general and lead and army <BR/>First be a soldier and march through mud.” <BR/> <BR/>General Sherman <BR/><BR/>“To be a principal and lead a school<BR/>First be a teacher and march <BR/>through chalk dust.”<BR/> General Common Sense<BR/> <BR/> Many cooks in a kitchen spoil the broth.<BR/> One says salt, the second a tomato,<BR/> While another, pepper in a rich sauce.<BR/> Yet a fourth says “I want a potato.” <BR/><BR/> Too many captains on a ship steer wrong. <BR/> “East!” “No west!” Still a third says, “Lets go north.”<BR/> This discord at sea makes the voyage long <BR/> As straight for the icebergs they all sail forth.<BR/><BR/> So too many principals in a school.<BR/> “Let’s please have detention to clear the halls.” <BR/> “Our angels do no wrong - it’s just bull.”<BR/> Who cares if poor Stevo takes all the falls?” <BR/><BR/> “Call me Mr. or Mrs.” “I’ll be plain Jane.” <BR/> “Suspensions please - for box cutters and knife.”<BR/> “Freedom of expression in our domain!<BR/> Safety rules, you say? Just a bunch of jive!” <BR/><BR/> Pull down our bulletin boards, shove us out.<BR/> Take our lounge, take our rooms, for we’ll not rage. <BR/> We’ll pound the pavement for work but won’t pout, <BR/> When you all usher in the golden age. <BR/><BR/> Assault all our cops, fake all your numbers,<BR/> But please give us old fashion fire drills. <BR/> For spreading flames don’t respect school borders.<BR/> And separate exits won’t provide for thrills.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33431390.post-28006370769411972082007-02-09T18:18:00.000-05:002007-02-09T18:18:00.000-05:00Luis Reyes writes:Norm: Re the following quote fro...Luis Reyes writes:<BR/><BR/>Norm:<BR/> <BR/>Re the following quote from your blog:<BR/> <BR/>"In addition, new small schools are exempt for two years from taking in special needs and language deficient kids, often immigrants who speak little or no English. These are the most difficult to teach and the large schools still standing that have an overwhelming number of them have their resources so overtaxed that they become known as failing schools and become targets for closure."<BR/> <BR/>This is dangerously loaded and misguided language. English language learners (ELLs) are not "language deficient"; they are limited in their English language proficiency (listening, speaking reading and writing skills). There is a world of difference between a lack of development in a second language and a language deficiency. The former is a matter of exposure to learning; the latter is a matter of physical or other underlying handicapping condition. Deficit-model theories regarding the language proficiency of ELLstudents have been debunked for years now.<BR/> <BR/>Also, ELL students, whether immigrant or native-born, are not inherently nor practically "the most difficult to teach". In fact, according to NY SED and NYC DOE data reports, when provided quality bilingual and ESL programs, former ELL students outperform even non-ELL students on reading and math achievement tests and have higher graduation rates! The reasons are many. Suffice it to say, when the public school system provides the "instrumentalities of learning" (NY State Court of Appeals in CFE), ELL students can and do succeed in reaching proficiency on all the learning standards.<BR/> <BR/>The concentration of ELLs in large high schools that are under-resourced, overcrowded and low-performing is a reality, created in part by the DOE. In closing down low-performing high schools and limiting ELLs' access to most new small high schools beyond the new International High Schools (which only take recently-arrived ELLs), the DOE has redirected ELLs to the remaining large high schools. Blame DOE bureaucrats for "overtaxing" the large high schools, not ELL students.<BR/> <BR/>Language matters and how we talk about our diverse student population also matters!<BR/> <BR/>Luis O. Reyes<BR/>Coordinator, CEEELL<BR/>Coalition for Educational Excellence for English Language Learnersed notes onlinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15018047869059226777noreply@blogger.com